Sophie thought many times about going to the castle to meet Dai but something always stopped her. The thought of impropriety never stopped her barging into Sia's room whenever she wanted. But then Sia had inherited her father's power to make people feel comfortable and welcome. Dai, though fraternal, lacked that warmth in his nature.
He would nevertheless have gotten a meeting with Sophie, if she wasn't worried about disturbing the newlyweds. Sophie had never properly met Mishty after the wedding and she wondered if it was by design. Dai and Sia had accepted her as their sister but the eastern princess may have her reservations. She did not want to make them uncomfortable by seeking a meeting with either of them when she was unwelcome by one. This was among the many excuses Sophie had told herself. In truth, she didn't want to see the castle without Sia in it.
King Suffle had drastically increased his trips to the grounds. The mountains held no charms for him without his two daughters. Dai was happy to take care of the realm and Mishty had assumed Sia's role in the castle.
The king tried to console himself by lots of travelling and tri-council meetings. He would always try to meet Sophie on such occasions. Both the wmpress and the queen had started to get irritated with him. Queen Rowan was especially annoyed as the meetings required her to travel to the human castle.
"If I knew you would be calling me here this often, I would not have taken the vow," she said in one such meeting, tucking a white strand of hair behind her coffee coloured ear.
The empress Natasha promised her that there would be no more unnecessary meetings and turned to the king. " I get it. You need some excuse to come here. But can't you do that without calling the tri-council every other day?" She scratched her nose. "We may even play nisiman."
"Or you could take care of your realm," the queen said, sarcasm dripping from her lips. "Maybe talk to your son. Get to know his wife. Have a hobby."
King Suffle took the empress on her invite for nisiman, but he always lost.
One such day the empress advised him saying, "I know you starlites don't travel with the ceremony that the humans find necessary. But still, as a king you need to have some decorum."
Suffle raised his eyebrow in question.
"You are a king. You can't go to the wall every day to meet a commander. Once or twice is okay under the pretence of inspection and survey. And frequent visits to her house are also not proper, even if you say you are just buying clothes. I mean how many summer clothes do you need? You must have had enough to dress all the guardians." Before he could protest she said, "Think about her. She would not want to be known as the king's favourite again."
"Are you spying on me?" the king asked in his jovial manner, "or is it Neal?"
"I won't be an empress if I didn't know what's happening in my empire. And you know very well that Neal is in charge of the spies."
"Neal is in charge of everything, you may as well crown him."
"He knows he won't be able to pull off his," the empress paused, "what does Sia call it?"
"Shenanigans," Suffle supplied.
"Yes, that." the empress said. "He won't be able to do them when he sits on the throne."
"More of a reason then," the king said. "Those shenanigans need to stop."
"He is a child," Natasha defended. "But you are not. Act like a king."
"Can't you call Sophie here under some pretence?" he pleaded.
"And make her known as the empress' pet?"
The king had no answer and the game continued in silence.
Suffle spoke after a while, "Looks like I lose. Remind me, what were the stakes?"
"Five games." Natasha rubbed her palms and flashed a wide grin. She was about to grant Suffle his wish.
The guards at the human castle soon started to joke that they were seeing more of Suffle and Sophie than they did of their crown prince. This exaggeration was exactly what Natasha had wanted to avoid.
One such morning, the two starlites were taking a stroll in the human royal garden. They did not walk on the ground but floated over the grass. Sophie enjoyed the way the tiny blades of grass felt on her bare feet and the king loved the smell.
"The empress suggests that I should give up the throne," Suffle said. "Then I can do whatever I please."
Sophie knew his stubborness had called her to meet under the very nose of the empress, just to annoy her. She smiled and shook her head. "I think you both are already retired," she observed. "The princes are doing everything."
"While we are off playing nisiman." The king chuckled.
"Since when does Your Majesty play nisiman?"
"Apparently I can't." The king shrugged her shoulders and said, "Anyway, Dai and Neal may have taken up the routine works, but some matters are better left in our skilled hands."
"You could explain those matters to Dai. You know he is ready for the throne. He has been ready for long."
"I don't have any doubt on his capabilities." Suffle stopped. "But there are some things that I'm not sure even I will be able to handle." His face grew sombre.
"What things?" The king's expression worried Sophie and he had noticed it.
"Oh, nothing. Just things." He dispensed off his glomminess with a wave of his hand and resumed the stroll.
Sophie was not the one to give up. "Is this the same reason the queen and the empress are not giving up the throne either?"
"Many heirs have to scrape their parents' dead bodies off the throne." He suddenly got interested in a bush near him.
Sophie knew she would not get any more information from him. He had already conveyed more than he wanted.
That night Sophie could not sleep. Another person would not have given much thought to the whole conversation. But she had known the king long enough to know that a threat was looming over the horizon. Her thoughts engulfed all of the royals. It was not probable that one would hide such a thing from the other two. Neither of them was anywhere close to retiring. Sophie wondered if the next generation- Sia, Dai, Neal, Maya and her sisters were also part of it. Sophie yearned for Sia's presence. She believed Sia would have told her all.
Sophie considered writing a letter to Sia but dismissed it as too insecure a method of conversation. Secrets should not be trusted in the hands of common messengers. Sia was Sophie's closest shot to the truth. She was also the farthest from her.
Dai was a puzzle in himself, a puzzle too easy to crack. He loved feeling important. Sophie knew that when asked about a secret, Dai would say he knows nothing in such a way that no one would have any doubt about his knowledge of some deep secret. The existence of the secret and his knowledge of it had no part to play in it.
Sophie also knew that that the probability of them knowing nothing was high. If Dai knew about it, he would have prepared himself for it, but the king had said that he was not ready. And if Sia had known something, she would have told Sophie. Her voice of reason reminded Sophie that even she had not told Sia about Neal's sleepwalking. If it was a royal secret, Sia would be right in not telling a commoner. Not everything was Sophie's concern.
Asking a nymph was too ridiculous an idea to even cross her mind.
Her thoughts finally rested on Neal. Sophie had observed that the empress's fondness of Neal was greater than what Sia or Dai got from their father. But it was obvious for humans to have greater feelings than starlites. Even King Suffle believed him to be wiser than Dai. The chances of him knowing the secret were high, but the chances of her asking him about it were very low.
She had met Neal many times after the ball, but always in the passing and always as an employee.
Even though she believed it unnecessary, she kept an eye on him for the sake of her promise to Sia. Sophie wasn't sure if Sia was worried of him or for him.
By the time Sophie slept, she had concluded that the trio was expecting, hoping something big and bad to happen. The king was waiting for it in his fight stance but she had no way of knowing anything about it.
Days passed by and Sophie tried to forget about the secret. But she could not forget the king's somber expression. Every time she saw Neal, she wondered if she should ask him and decided otherwise.
Another stroll in the garden was enough to bring the secret on Sophie's mind. Last time the king had invited her under the pretense of familiarizing herself with the castle. Nobody had told him about Sophie's adventure in the ball.
This time she was called on by the prince. She was not clear on his agenda, but then, nobody ever was. He was walking with his mother. She and the king had left them behind and were again floating on the grass.
"You are still thinking about what I said the other day," Suffle said suddenly.
"I'm sorry. I can't help it." Sophie played with the shoes in her hand. "It's eating away my brain."
"You don't need to worry."
"I know you are waiting for something to happen." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I won't deny it."
"Will I know when it happens? Will everybody?"
Suffle looked around. "Yes, I suppose. It's not a big deal though."
"But you'll know before everybody else?"
"I already know."
"So it has happened but you are hiding it?"
Suffle stopped. He pondered for a moment and looked in her eyes. "Sophie, do you know something?"
"No." Her eyes narrowed. "I just know to ask a lot of questions."
He smiled. "Looks like I succeeded in teachinf my ways to at least one of my children." He said more to himself than her, "It won't be that bad."
"But what is it?"
"Truth."
"About?" Sophie couldn't get an answer as she was hit by a familiar scent and realised that the prince was coming towards them.
"My mother thought you were lost," he said. Sophie gave Neal a sideway glance and noticed the scepticism in his eyes.
But Suffle got the message and said, "Then I must fly at once and reassure her."
"She is by the third row of petunias," Neal informed.
Suffle flew away and Neal rolled his eyes. Sophie wore her shoes, quietly cursing the etiquettes.
"I feel like I'm missing something," Sophie said giving her head a slight tilt.
Neal laughed. "You are missing a lot."
"That I know," she muttered.
"A strolls in the garden is the best way to have a private conversation," the prince explained.
"Hmm." Her mind was still lingering on the conversation she had just had with the king.
"It is inconspicuous. In the castle, we are surrounded by servants. If you tell your servants to go out, they wonder what secret conversations are happening. Panic spreads. Take a stroll in the garden and no one is any wiser. No risk of hidden spies if you know the right spot. If you think they are by the petunias..."
"Oh." was all she could manage when he stopped speaking.
"This is the royal way of doing things. You must be used to such things."
"Yes," she said absentmindedly.
"They are probably chatting about me." The prince got aware of her lack of attention and decided to have a laugh on her expense.
"Probably."
"Or maybe you."
"Maybe."
"The nymphs are fed up of you," Neal said biting his lip so as to not burst into laughter, "eating all their cake."
"Hmm." Sophie said without listening. "What?" she suddenly realized what he had said.
"Miss Antofurota." Neal grinned. "You seem preoccupied."
"Forgive me, Your Highness," Sophie said, "I was dwelling on the conversation I just had with His Majesty."
Sophie was unable to decide if she should ask the prince for information.
"What was the talk that got you so engrossed?"
Sophie stretched her neck to look at his face. She decided to trust him. "I think it's some kind of secret," she said in a low voice. "They are waiting for something to happen."
Neal burst into laughter again. "Oh that little thing. They have been waiting for it for a long time, perhaps since before I was born."
"But what is it?" She asked as she sent a silent hopeful prayer to Lord Star.
"He didn't tell you their secret," Neal said. Sophie waited for a what-makes-you-think-I-will answer but instead he said, "Can I trust you to not tell them ours?"
"Our secret?"
"The one I'm about to tell you. But first you have to promise me, you will never ask or talk to anybody about the whole thing."
"Not even Sia?"
He shrugged. "I trust Sia."
"I promise not to talk to anyone else about the whole thing," she solemnly swore.
Neal looked around in a dramatic way and said, "It has already happened." There was a grin on his face that told her he was proud of himself.
Sophie frowned and pressed her lips. "Your Highness is pulling my leg." Sophie was under the impression that the royalty was afraid of a secret coming out. And if it had already happened without them knowing, what was the point?
"I'm serious. It happened months ago." He looked into her eyes and she saw he wasn't lying. "It feels good to finally get it out." His eyes smiled.
"Why don't they know it then?" Sophie decided to play along.
"Because I haven't told them yet."
"When will you tell them?"
"I don't know," he said. "Perhaps I should let them figure it out by themselves."
"So you haven't told anybody?"
"I have told you." He smiled mischievously while drumming his fingers on the back of his hand.
"Why me?"
"I would have told Dai if I could meet him," Neal lied, "same with Sia."
"I'm facing the same problem."
"Why did they get married?" he sighed and Sophie realised his dire need of a friend. What Sia had said made sense now.
"To secure our borders." Sophie skipped to say that Sia had to go because he wouldn't marry Marya. Then she asked the question for a third time, "But what is it? The thing that happened."
"Believe me, there is nothing more I would like to do than to tell you, but..."
"You can't." Her face dropped.
"I can. But you won't," he said, "understand it. You can't see the big picture yet."
"What is the big picture?" Sophie asked twiddling her thumbs.
"All of us. Earth, water and air."
"I know it's about the whole empire. That's why-"
"No, the whole world."
"So," she said, "you have the fate of the whole world in your hands?"
"Not me alone," he said, "we hold it, in our hearts." He touched a finger to his chest where the heart lies. "And it is not the fate of the whole world. It's tiny crack in a big glass. It may go unnoticed even."
"And everybody has been waiting for it since forever?"
"My parents, the king, the queens, they had it all planned long ago," Neal replied. "I won't say forever though."
"You are not happy about the planning." She observed the unhappy lines under his eyes.
"Of course not," he said. "Some things should never be planned. And the plan was too far-fetched."
That was the second night Sophie had a problem sleeping. She wondered for how long she was to be in suspense. What was the big picture? She again took guesses about the secret, pondering over the major changes to have happened in the past few months. Many things had changed and she could not point to one particular event. Her own life had turned upside down in the time period.
But still she felt that the prince's and the king's secret were not the same. Unfortunately, there was no one to tell her that she was right.
Sophie had made another interesting observation. Although they all pretended otherwise, Prince Neal was not on good terms with the trio. Why else would he keep things from them?
Sophie decided that if the prince was bot worried, it was not her office to worry about the king's secrets. And the manipulative prince had in essence told her nothing about the secret and in return had secured her silence.